Among the director driven "Platoon" by Stone and "Full Metal Jacket" by Kubrick, this film got buried in the hype. Most Vietnam veterans vote for this one being the best and I agree, "Hamburger Hill" the best Vietnam movie made. Thank you director John Irvin!
Other great Irvin movies to check out:
Robin Hood (1991)
When Trumpets Fade
Ghost Story
Shiner
No 1 - Platoon
No 2 - Full Metal Jacket
No 3 - We Were Soldiers
Hamburger Hill was done in the old style- not realistic enough as the filming is detached- you 'watch' the action but do not participate in it. Compare this to Saving Private Ryan, you feel that you are hitting the beach, trapped underwater, gasp for air and go under again..
Even the short Vietnam War scene in Forrest Gump is better than HH- you feel the tracer bullets fly at you and smash trees nearby, you see soldiers being blown away.
Based on this kind of new realism films, the best overall war movie is still
No 1 - Saving Private Ryan
No 2 - Red Hawk Down
There are other 'War' movies such as Born on 4th of July, which do not quite fit into this action category
Most overated film is
Apocalypse Now- unrealistic, and the ending to me was absurd.
Please recommend your favourites- I love War Movies!
Um..I think you mean Black Hawk Down....Red Hawk Down was your No. 2 movie.
As for my pics..
1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Apocolpyse Now (best cinematography, it was amazing for that time)
3. Full Metal Jacket
4. Band of Brothers (yeah I know it's a series)
5. Black Hawk Down
6. Sands Of Iwo Jima
7. Hunt For Red October
8. Bat-21
9. Enemy At The Gates
10. Red Dawn (cheesy acting, but a classic in it's own right)
11. Casualties Of War
12. The Big Red One
Red Dawn, great flick, anyone know of anyone movies where the U.S. is invaded? (not by aliens)
War Top Ten
1. Band of Brothers (realism of SPR but 7 hours longer, can't beat that)
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Black Hawk Down
4. Platoon
5. Enemy at the Gates
6. Full Metal Jacket
7. A Thin Red Line
8. Apocalypse Now
9. The Longest Day
10. Rules of Engagement (not really war but still great flick)
Honorable Mentions
Hamburge Hill
Tora! Tora! Tora!
A Bridge Too Far
The Big Red One
Worst War Flicks Imaginable
1. Windtalkers
2. Pearl Harbor - what happened Michael Bay?
3. We Were Soldiers
4. Battlefield Earth (sorry I just can't get over how bad a movie this is)
I think you missed the original poster's point - this movie is appreciated by Vietnam vets because it was so realistic. Not the special effects, but the story. People who worry about whether or not the gore seems real enough have never seen real gore, or they would know that memories are TOO real sometimes, and can never be understood by someone who didn't experience the same thing. This movie was just meant to show it from the soldier's view.
"Geez, it's like a temp agency for midget criminal minds." Do YOU know where this quote came from??
Full metal jacket is the most overrated film in the entire genre. Platoon wasn't nearly as controversial as it was put out to be. And we were soldiers is widely considered to be a perfectly terrible movie, both dialogue wise, and realism wise. Hamburger Hill is definitely the best Vietnam film ever made.
peace.
1. Apocalypse Now
2. Platoon
3. Casualties of War
I truly believe this was one of the best Vietnam movies thus far. It presented the soldiers as they really were and not as a bunch of "drugged out psychos!" like in Platoon ad nauseum.
I'm not talking out my arse, I personally know many many vets who were in the thick of it, and have the pics & medals to prove it. They've always been bothered by the drugged-out soldiers presented in most films. To a man they have told me that you don't want someone not in control of their faculties on the front line. (makes sense)
I like the way the movie stayed on target. It's a shame it has always been so overlooked.
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh"- Voltaire
Tigerland is probably the best of the overlooked Vietnam era films. One of the best 5.00 movies I ever got at wal-mart. A young Colin Ferrel is great, as is the directing by Joel Schumacher. Enjoyably represents a man who is against the war, but for the right reasons.
Another great war movie is Gettysburg, it was too bad that Gods and Generals sucked.
Worst war movie? How about Windtalkers? Pearl Harbor perhaps?
[deleted]
We Were Soldiers????? HAHA, give me a break.
share1. Patton
2. All Quiet on the Western Front
3. Platoon
Although I enjoyed Hamburger Hill very much.
Who needs reason when you've got heroin?
I honestly believe Hamburger Hill is the best of all the Vietnam films. Platoon was okay, but I didn't like it that much. Apocolypse Now was pretty interesting, but two days later I couldn't remember most of it and was confused by what I could recall. I hated Tigerland. I really liked Full Metal Jacket, but it never struck an emotional chord (other than pity for Lawrence A.K.A. Pyle). Hamburger Hill had me in tears before it was over and I couldn't stop thinking about it for the rest of the night and well into the next day. It stuck out in my mind far longer than any of the others.
sharePlatoon didn't put you into the battles like SPR did but you still consider it the best Vietnam film.
shareI'll discuss my favorites in order.
Number one was Hamburger Hill until We Were Soldiers came out. Now it's number two. I prefer a realistic story that portrays soldiers for what they realy are. Hamburger Hill was the only Vietnam movie to do that (well maybe the Green Berets was first), until We Were Soldiers came out. We Were Soldiers had most of the same things going for it plus the more modern film making techniques.
Full Metal Jacket was great. If for nothing other than R Lee Ermey's "acting."
The Green Berets has the advantage of being the first Vietnam movie. Alot of people love to make fun of it but most of the story is very realistic and the film making was on par with war movies of the time. It's also about one of the most effected parts of the Vietnam strategy, the CIDG camps.
Go Tell the Spatans, if you haven't seen it do so. Good look at the early US advisor. Plus it has Burt Lancaster.
Odd and Angry Shot, Australian flick about the SAS. Very anti war but a great movie. Australians, after all, are cool people.
Platoon was Okay only for the combat sequences. Everything that is good about Platoon can be traced to military advisor Dale Dye. The scene where Charly Sheen grenades the enamy fighting position could be shown at the infanty school.
Apocolyps Now is a Great movie, excelent cinimatography etc but without a coherent story its nothing but a series of memorable characters and reat monologues. Our heros just go down the river from one fed up group of Americans to the next, until they meat the most psycho American of all. I think this film was inspired by watching the Wizard of Oz during a bad acid trip.
I liked Good Morning Vietnam, I like Robin Williams and it was an interesting portrayal of another aspect of the war.
Platoon Leader had potential but didn't cary it off. Decent plot, but little things like the way the soldiers wore their LBE and the markings of the UH-1s grated on me. Some of the acting was OK but in general it was sub par. The best thing about it was the sound effect of the Sargeant's shortened M16.
Tigerland...is this even a Vietnam movie? If it is I guess it would go here, I've only seen it once so it might move up on the list. I just couldn't like the Colin Farrel character, and to like a movie I have to like the protagonist.
The boys of Company C has some memorable moments, but mostly it falls flat. "Check your package men"
Currahee!
Yes, the reason that this movie was so good is not its special effects (which were about average for its time), but because it was the first movie that didn't characterize the Americans in Vietnam as drugged-up, psychopathic, war criminals (like Platoon, and Apocalypse Now). The fact that the soldiers were actually portrayed realistically in a Vietnam film was refreshing.
Apocalypse Now is a modern adaptation of "The Heart of Darkness" a very boring (IMAO) novel by Joseph Conrad, which made for a boring movie. Like an earlier poster said, you can only remember parts of it after you watch it, and it doesn't make sense. It probably didn't help that I saw the directors cut version first (mostly just extra scenes of the boat going down the river with no dialogue) and the fact that it was a crappy VHS copy that skipped and blipped and I had to fast-forward through several parts because of that. Like Heart of Darkness, it is supposed to show how the best people with good intentions turn into monsters when there is no body to hold them accountable.
"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
My Favorite War Movies.)
1.) The Longest Day
2.) Pearl Harbor
3.) Hot Shots Part Deux
4.) All Hot and Botherd on the Western Front w/ Jenna Jameson.
1)Full Metal Jacket
2)Gardens of Stone
3)Apocalypse Now
4)The Deer Hunter
5)Hair
6)Greetings (De Palma 1968)
7)The Flight of the Intruder
8)Casualties of War
9)Air America
10)The Big Shave (Scorsese 1967)
11)First Blood
12)Tigerland
13)Platoon
14)Hard Target
15)Bat 21
16)Born on the Fourth of July
17)Forrest Gump
18)Coming Home
19)Jacknife
20)Good Morning Vietnam
I haven't seen Hamburger Hill yet.
I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill.
I must admit I've seen alot of war movies in my time. This movie is down and dirty. There is no beating around bushes in this NAM flick. However; my only grudge is most NAM or war films are centered on the Army except a few which is based about Marines. I would like to see more Marine based flicks, and i would like to see more movies get more into the nitty gritty of NAM warfare. Great film over all...My vote of best NAM flick
Hamburger Hill
Apocalypse Now
Platoon
Full Metal Jacket
I agree: I really like this film. Having just watched the DVD again, there are things in it which set it apart from other films about Vietnam in particular which make it memorable. The most notable thing about it is that the violence in it gradually becomes almosy senseless and sickening, but the feeling that the audience derives is not some sort of cartoonish violence for violence sakes, but rather a graphical representation of what happened there; day after day of seeing your friends get shot to *beep* around you.
Comparing this film with Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalyse Now and We Were Soldiers is that the lack of a central character with the obvious voice-over enables the viewer to pay closer attention to the stories of the other platoon members. Throughout the film they repeat what has been said back in the US and gradually open their past and prejudices to the audience. I think that this is a good thing as it differs from the three previous films where there is the obvious central character who has time invested in their traits and personality.
I believe that Hamburger Hill is an underrated Nam movie having some during the time of Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Nam: Tour of Duty (on television) but whose portrayal of men at war is quite impressive.
I personally think Platoon and Full Metal Jacket were the best ( my dad is a Vietnam vet who fought at Hue with the Marines) and he really liked those movies, but we both agree, that Hamburger Hill is up there as one of the best Vietnam movies made.
The music is amazing in this movie. : )
the deerhunter
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